Rule Question

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Last night I caught the last 10 minutes of my daughter's high school practice. They were running through situations. At one point the coach stopped practice and said that he wanted to explain a new base running rule this year. He said that with a runner on 1st base, a ground ball batted towards the 2nd baseman, the runner is required to run behind the fielder, that she can not pass in front of the fielder or hop the ball. I thought to myself, "great, now we'll have girls running into right field." Also, if this is the rule why wouldn't you have your 2nd baseman playing on the edge of the grass. Can anyone explain this rule change to me?

 

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That one has me scratching my head.

I would guess that the coach is mixing up his rules. There is no "new" rule like this for NFHS (high school) ball. This would still fall under the usual guidelines for either obstruction or interference. There were some changes to the OBS/INT rule relating only to a batted ball that is deflected, but those would not come into play here.

You can see the NFHS rule changes and interpretations for 2007 here:

http://www.nfhs.org/web/2006/08/softball.aspx

Nothing mentioned there anything like you were told. If that were a rule change I can't imagine that they would leave a major revision like that off the rule change list!

Maybe at the next practice you can ask the coach to show you this rule in the 2007 rule book. I don't think that he's going to find it...

 

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I spoke with an umpire who was at the same meeting. He said that there was a rule clarification discussion that if the runner makes an unnatural action in front of the fielder (jumping jack, throw dirt, etc) that she can be called out, that contact in that case is not necessary.

I guess this coach didn't get the intent of the discussion. I hope that he doesn't tell the girls to always run behind the fielder. Seems like it would have been better for him to not mention this "new rule".

 

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"...if the runner makes an unnatural action in front of the fielder (jumping jack, throw dirt, etc) that she can be called out, that contact in that case is not necessary."

That has always been the case. Obstruction and interference were Points of Emphasis from the NFHS this year, and I'm sure this was covered in the the state rule meetings. It sounds like the coach misinterpreted the points that were being emphasized!